Only Time Will Tell
by insertcleverandwittytitlehere
Summary: If there was a way to erase time, to silence the tick-tocking sounds of a clock, stop the sun and moon from creating day and night, Teddy Lupin would do it. Because sometimes time takes love and turns it into duty, and Teddy's not ready for that.


**A/N:** This is Beater 2 of the Chudley Cannons checking in for Season 5 Round 1 of the QLFC.

 **Beater 2:** Write your Beater One's NOTP.

 **Beater 1's NOTP:** Teddy/anyone that's not Victoire

 **Additional prompts:** 2\. (word) yesterday, and 5. (dialogue) "I'm happier than I've ever been before."

 **Word count (before A/N):** 2,824 words

 **Thank you to my lovely teammates MaryandMerlin and MissWitchx for betaing for me.**

 **I am not JK, HP is not my creation, I'm just lucky enough to be a part of it.**

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If there was a way to erase time, to silence the tick-tocking sounds of a clock, stop the sun and moon from creating day and night, Teddy Lupin would do it. He would still the tides and quiet the roaring waves, because if time stopped, if it was removed from the very fabric of life, he wouldn't have to keep moving forward. He wouldn't have to procrastinate any longer. He could just be.

Teddy was a mess. A great, big hungover mess. He couldn't even remember the night before, not really anyway, and the small glimpses into his past that did surface weren't making him feel better. There was red hair, darker than Vic's, and glasses. Freckles, eyes, lips. But no full image.

"Not a good way to start a marriage," he mumbled to himself, nursing the glass of water in his hand. Placing it on the coffee table in front of him, Teddy sank further into his hotel couch. He rubbed his eyes, his hands sticky from sweat and spilled beers. An hour remained before he would walk down the aisle, before he would say "I do," kiss the girl, and live happily ever after.

His stomach churned.

So far, he had been able to get his pants on. His shirt remained unbuttoned, his shoes missing. His hair had somehow turned grey overnight, a metamorphose he did not recall doing. The strands were greasy and long, lifeless to the touch.

Victoire would scream if she saw him like this. But Teddy didn't care. He felt guilty, sure, but he was sick and tired of doing everything precisely the way Victoire wanted. After all, _she_ wanted the big wedding. _She_ wanted to do it in Paris. _She_ wanted live swans and a horse and carriage and three types of cheese and royal blue napkins and eight bridesmaids and, and, and…

Teddy kept telling himself this was exactly what he wanted. He was positive that if he could get through the wedding, the marriage would be fine. Everything would be fine. But as time crept up on him, as the months and weeks and days faded to memory, Teddy couldn't stop the dread boiling up inside him like an angry volcano. What was more important? The wedding or the bond between him and Vic? He wasn't so sure Vic knew the difference anymore.

A pounding came from the hotel door. It echoed like a sonorous charm in Teddy's head: _boom_ , _boom_ , _boom_.

"Ted! You up yet?" James. His best man. His confidante.

Teddy didn't say a word.

"You better be up, Teddy," James shouted from the hall. "You've only got 45 minutes, mate. Time is flying today."

James paused. Then he began banging on the door again, the bolted lock rattling like a bell. Teddy felt the bile rising before he knew what to do, his hands instinctively covering his mouth, but it was too late. He retched the contents of his stomach onto his pants, the floor, the table. Miraculously, he didn't hit the couch.

Teddy bent at the waist, doubling over, letting his head rest on the coffee table. The glass pane was cool against his forehead, giving him a brief moment of clarity. Was it the hangover that had him feeling sick?

"Ah, man!" James was louder now, like he stepped out of a tunnel. Teddy looked up in time to see James pointing his wand at him, a clear sign he used magic to enter. "You look like hell."

"I feel like hell."

"Here," James closed the door, wand at the ready. "Let me."

Within seconds, the mess was cleaned. Teddy leant back again, his head tilting to the side. "I don't know about this."

"About what?" James picked up Teddy's shoes from under the table. It took Teddy a moment to realize that that's where they were hiding this whole time. James shoved them onto Teddy's feet, tying them.

"Time." Teddy said. "If I just had a little bit more time—"

"Don't start that again. You were going on and on about time last night in the pub. Then, because you thought it was a laugh, you metamorphosed your hair and face to look like Great Uncle Bilius and started shouting that you were Father Time," James neatly knotted a bow on the left shoe. "It was all fun until the Muggle patrons started shouting and throwing things. Had to obliviate the lot of them. Dad wasn't pleased."

Teddy winced. An Auror on vacation does not like to take on extra work.

"Yeah, well, Uncle Harry doesn't get it."

"And what's that?" James sat back on his feet.

"Time."

"Yeah, sure," James shook his head, making fast work of the remaining shoe. A few more minutes passed, and James continued to clean up Teddy, getting him to brush his teeth and comb his hair. He buttoned Teddy's shirt, and left, saying he'd send up a potion for the hangover.

At the sound of the door clicking shut, Teddy metamorphosed himself back from Father Time and into Teddy: short brown hair, narrow face, brown eyes. Uncle Harry always said he looked like his father. Teddy wished he knew what his father would look like today, but time took his parents away before he even got a chance to remember them.

"I suppose Uncle Harry might have some idea of time," Teddy mumbled to the room, a new wave of guilt washing over him. Good thing he didn't say any of that out loud to James.

James. Teddy was five years old when James was born, and he could still remember how tiny the first Potter baby was. Now, twenty-two years later, that same tiny baby just put Teddy's shoes on him.

Life was happening too fast. Only ten short years before, in his last year of Hogwarts, Teddy started dating Victoire. And in ten years, he fell in love, got engaged, and was to be married, except…

Except somewhere along the way, time took love and turned it into duty. Everywhere Teddy looked, he saw happy couples married right out of Hogwarts. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. Rose Weasley just got engaged to her Hogwarts boyfriend, and she was only four years out of school. Heck, even the departed Potters were Hogwarts sweethearts.

Teddy and Victoire _had_ to marry. It's just how things went in their family, and Vic wanted it so badly. So, two years ago, Teddy proposed. Because it was the right thing to do. It was the logical next step. He did love Victoire in some ways, and since everyone else was expecting it, he had to do it. Right?

A light tapping came from the door. This time, Teddy pulled himself to his feet, the world rushing around him, fuzzy and fast. When he opened the door, it took him a moment to focus on his new companion.

"Lily Luna," Teddy whispered.

There it was again, the flashes from the night before. Red hair, darker than Vic's, and glasses. Freckles, eyes, lips. And here was the full image.

"Lily Luna," Teddy said, louder now, more confident than before. In the midst of his drinking at his bachelor party, in the middle of his self-pitying spiral, he had run into the youngest Potter.

"Hi," she said, her brown eyes shielded by her glasses. Of the three Potter children, only Lily Luna inherited her father's poor eyesight. Likewise, of the three Potter children, Lily Luna was the only one to inherit the Weasley red hair and freckles. Teddy stepped aside to let her enter. When he closed the door behind her, his heart started to pound in his ears, a metronome keeping time with his racing thoughts. What had happened when he ran into her yesterday? Where had he run into her? What had he said? What did he do? Whatever it was, it was making his heart race.

"I have your potion," her voice broke the blood-rushing sound in his head. He watched her slip a hand into her cardigan pocket and retrieve a small purple bottle filled with hangover-be-gone. When he reached for the vial, he felt Lily Luna's skin soft to the touch. As his fingers wrapped around it, he could feel every single cell on his hand light up at the feeling of her on the other end. She was dressed in a simple yellow dress and blue cardigan. Out of all the Weasley-Potter cousins, Lily Luna would not be included in the bridal party. Too young, Vic had said. Too much of an age gap.

But Teddy had shook his head. Lily Luna was an international Quidditch player for Merlin's sake! Twenty years old and playing keeper for the Holyhead Harpies. She was a woman. Young, sure, but still a woman. Somehow, the tiny little girl Teddy had protected with his life had grown up. He did not get to see how time shaped her from day to day, but in that moment, his hand lightly touching hers, Teddy received a small gift: time stood still.

"Thanks," he whispered, breaking the silence between them. He took the vial from her hand and drank it in one go. An instant relief washed over him, the fuzzy feeling in his brain vanishing altogether. But, and Teddy had dreaded this, the sick feeling remained.

It was not the hangover, after all, causing him so much grief.

"I should go," Lily Luna made to grab the door, but Teddy stopped her. She pulled her hand back fast, her gaze never leaving the floor.

"What happened?"

"Teddy, I—"

"Please."

Lily Luna took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling slowly. Then, she stood straight, her eyes finding his own. "You told me you didn't love Victoire anymore, Teddy. You told me you never wanted it to go this far, but you didn't know what else to do. You told me that, that—"

Her voice had dropped to a whisper, her eyes falling back to the ground. Teddy watched as tears fell down her face.

"Teddy," her voice wavered. Hidden beneath the sadness and confusion was a tenderness he recognized; Victoire sounded the same when she was upset. "You asked what I thought, and I told you that I didn't think Vic was right for you and that she changed you a lot, made you more what she thinks you should be instead of who you are. And then I said that I—"

Her hands cupped her face. Now muffled, Lily Luna choked out, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say it."

But say what? Teddy wrapped his arms around Lily Luna, letting her cry into his shoulder. He rested his cheek on the top of her head and swayed back and forth like the ebb and flow of a wave. He imagined the stars looking down on them, the sound of the water soothing both their worried minds.

His feet were wet.

Lily Luna pulled away from Teddy. Her sandaled feet sank into the sand as the ocean wave hugged the shoreline.

"Teddy! Why did you do that?" she shrieked. "Where are we?"

The stars really were looking down on them, infinite lights stuck inside a blanket of midnight. The ocean, the beach, the shoreline, Lily Luna. It wasn't just in his head, it was really there in front of him. And in his hand, his wand.

"Teddy. We have to go back," she was looking around. "I think we're on the other side of the world…"

He looked out to where the ocean met the sky, his heart pounding, his mind perfectly blank for the first time all morning. The other side of the world. That thought alone brought a smile to Teddy's face.

"Why are you happy?" Lily Luna was wiping away the last of her tears. "We can't stay here. Where even is here?"

She began moving away from the water's edge, but Teddy was more at ease letting the tide wash up and down his legs. Never had anything brought him so much clarity than his accidental Apparition.

"You told me you loved me," he said. Lily Luna stopped, her back still to him. "That's it, right? You told me you loved me."

Slowly, she turned around, her eyes wide. "We can't stay here. You're getting married in 15 minutes. We have to go back."

"Lily Lun—"

"We have to go back."

"Please let me spea—"

"We're going—"

" _LiLu_!"

Her childhood nickname shut her up quick. Her arms fell to her side, her own wand dangling in her fingertips. Teddy felt his heart drop, the signs of defeat and embarrassment were written on her face. He didn't want her to feel those things. Not at all. He closed the gap between them. Gently he lifted her chin so that she was looking into his eyes. He said, "You did, didn't you? You told me that you loved me."

She nodded her head, the words too hard for her in that moment.

"It's okay, Lily. Truly. It is, because. Well, because," his shoulders dropped, tension leaving his limbs. It was okay, wasn't it, that Lily Luna loved him. Love was the most important thing in the world. There were classes taught on love at Hogwarts ever since the last Wizarding War ended. Love played a vital role in the outcome of that war. As a Healer, Teddy often saw the effects of love firsthand, how miraculous healings occurred because of faith in love.

Love. The feeling he had fallen in and out of over the past ten years. He couldn't admit it to himself before, but here, away from the wedding, away from Victoire and all the other happy couples, he knew it to be true.

Not everyone marries their childhood sweetheart. His own parents were a perfect example of that.

Teddy placed his hands on Lily Luna's shoulders. Her eyes met his, and at last the sickness from that morning went away entirely. He bent his head forward, his lips barely touching hers, letting her make the final move.

All at once, he was kissing her. Her hands cautiously wrapped around his waist, and he pulled her into him, her body flush against his. When they pulled apart, Teddy let his forehead rest against hers. "I think, in this moment, right now, I'm happier than I've ever been before."

"Teddy, you can't mean that."

"No," he tightened his grip on her. "I do. I never wanted to marry Vic. Never. I just thought I had to."

"And kissing me?"

He looked at her. Teddy wasn't in love with Lily Luna, not yet, anyway, but he also knew he was no longer in love with Victoire. Kissing his fiance had never felt like this before. For the first time in a long time, Teddy knew what he wanted, and it was Lily Luna. He couldn't explain how or why, but everything felt right with her.

"I wanted to do that. No matter how messy things are going to be in the next few weeks, I know that if I have the opportunity to kiss you again, I will," he smiled. "Only if you let me, of course."

"And if I don't?" she teased.

"At least I'll have this one to remember." And then he kissed her again, not because it was a good idea and not because he felt like he was supposed to, but because he did not want it to end.

"We should get back," Lily Luna finally said, snuggling into his chest. The stars were fading to grey, and a light pink hue was gracing the sky. They were seated on the sand, their shoes off, their feet tickled by the ebb and flow of the water. "You have a wedding to call off, after all."

"Yeah, that," Teddy sighed, but instead of moving, he only held onto her tighter. Even after the crazy morning he had, he still begged time to slow down. Putting off the inevitable was getting harder with each passing moment, and while Teddy was finally feeling at peace with himself, he sure as hell wasn't looking forward to breaking Victoire's heart.

"Do you think it'll be okay?" he asked Lily Luna.

She leant back into him, her bright eyes finding his. "It'll be hard at first, no doubt. But I've always believed time heals all wounds… As cliche as that may sound."

They both laughed, and Teddy kissed her forehead, "You're probably right."

"You know I am."

"Do I now?"

"Yes," she turned to face him. "Now kiss me."

And he did. He kissed her. The moon and sun turned night into day, the waves crashed like a joyous symphony against the smooth shore, and he kissed her.


End file.
